Measuring Peace

Measuring peace at the global and national level allows us to assess the social, political and economic factors that create peace. Each year the Institute for Economics and Peace produces the Global Peace Index, the world’s leading measure of national peacefulness, ranking 162 countries according to their levels of peace. A series of national peace indices have also been developed to explore the fabric of peace at the subnational level. These include: the Mexico Peace Index, the UK Peace Index and US Peace Index.

Economics of Peace

The Institute has developed an innovative methodology to calculate the economic impact of violence to the economy. It does this by calculating 13 different types of violence related spending at the national level, and applying a multiplier effect to account for the lingering influence of violence and fear. There are immediate and obvious examples of the impact of violence to the economy, like hospital fees, or security costs, and there are also more subtle long term impacts, such as a shift tomore defensive spending by individuals, businesses and governments.

Positive Peace

Peace is much more than the absence of violence. Positive Peace describes the attitudes, structures and institutions that underpin and sustain peaceful societies. The Institute has developed a conceptual framework, known as the Pillars of Peace, that outlines a system of eight factors that work together to build positive peace. Derived from a statistical analysis of over 4,000 datasets, the Pillars of Peace provides a roadmap to overcome adversity and conflict, and to build lasting peace.

Understanding Risk

Using data collected since 1996, the Institute has developed a new methodology to identify countries at risk of falling into instability and violence. The risk model allows a deep understanding of the resilience of nations towards internal and external shocks and can be used for forecasting risk and opportunity. Learn more about countries at risk in the 2014 Global Peace Index Report.